Determined

A Science of Life Without Free Will

By: Robert M. Sapolsky

Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith

The instant New York Times bestseller

“Excellent…Outstanding for its breadth of research, the liveliness of the writing, and the depth of humanity it conveys.”–Wall Street Journal

One of our great behavioral scientists, the bestselling author of Behave, plumbs the depths of the science and philosophy of decision-making to mount a devastating case against free will, an argument with profound consequences

Robert Sapolsky’s Behave, his now classic account of why humans do good and why they do bad, pointed toward an unsettling conclusion: We may not grasp the precise marriage of nature and nurture that creates the physics and chemistry at the base of human behavior, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Now, in Determined, Sapolsky takes his argument all the way, mounting a brilliant (and in his inimitable way, delightful) full-frontal assault on the pleasant fantasy that there is some separate self telling our biology what to do.

Determined offers a marvelous synthesis of what we know about how consciousness works—the tight weave between reason and emotion and between stimulus and response in the moment and over a life. One by one, Sapolsky tackles all the major arguments for free will and takes them out, cutting a path through the thickets of chaos and complexity science and quantum physics, as well as touching ground on some of the wilder shores of philosophy. He shows us that the history of medicine is in no small part the history of learning that fewer and fewer things are somebody’s “fault”; for example, for centuries we thought seizures were a sign of demonic possession. Yet, as he acknowledges, it’s very hard, and at times impossible, to uncouple from our zeal to judge others and to judge ourselves. Sapolsky applies the new understanding of life beyond free will to some of our most essential questions around punishment, morality, and living well together. By the end, Sapolsky argues that while living our daily lives recognizing that we have no free will is going to be monumentally difficult, doing so is not going to result in anarchy, pointlessness, and existential malaise. Instead, it will make for a much more humane world.

*This audiobook includes a downloadable PDF containing Tables, Charts, Diagrams, and Footnotes from the book.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 Robert M. Sapolsky (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“Sapolsky’s decades of experience studying the effects of the interplay of genes and the environment on behavior shine brightly . . . He provides compelling examples that bad luck compounds . . . convincingly argues against claims that chaos theory, emergent phenomena, or the indeterminism offered by quantum mechanics provide the gap required for free will to exist.”—Science

“The behavioural scientist engagingly lays out the reasons why our every action is predetermined—and why we shouldn’t despair about it . . . Determined is a bravura performance, well worth reading for the pleasure of Sapolsky’s deeply informed company . . . Absorbing and compassionate.”—The Guardian

“Few people understand the human brain as well as renowned neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky.”—Most Anticipated Fall Books, San Francisco Chronicle

Enjoyed it, but I remain a skeptic.

This book wrestles with a heavy topic, but doesn’t emerge victorious. Nevertheless, it was a thought provoking read - humorous at times - and I enjoyed it.

Now, getting to my criticisms of the book;

1. Ultimately, if we are to seriously follow the consequences of having no free will, we need to rethink everything. Yet this book clings to the set of morales birthed during the age of free will. Sapolsky hints at this during the final chapters of the book, but isn’t ready to radically embrace the consequences of the first half of the book by rethinking morality.

2. I remain unconvinced that the question of free will is the right question to ask. Does it even matter? The universe is sufficiently complex to permit determinism to masquerade as something like free will, and it’s obviously indistinguishable from actual free will, since if It were distinguishable, the debate would already be over.

3. If the case for no free will is so strong, why spend so much effort in early chapters covering unconvincing arguments that Sapolsky himself says doesn’t hold up “on its own”. He is trying to form a strong argument out of a handful of weak/refutable arguments, but the foundation is weak. Yes, these are of less importance than his main “turtles” argument, but to my mind, it came off feeling like a swindle.

4. In discussing the consequences of no free will, Sapolsky takes a number of firm positions that seem far from the only interpretation. For instance, even in a world without free will, intelligence still models the world, and perhaps supersedes free will. Therefore, policies that educate effectively increase freedom of “choice”, and policies that create an environment promoting education must therefore be virtuous. More generally, policies that shape our environment in such a way as to herd us toward virtuous paths, are virtuous.

If You're a Neuroscientist, You'll Probably Like It

A lot of this was just way over my head--as someone educated in arts and recovery, rather than in science. It's like listening to a dissertation. Albeit not without a little bit of humor (which, even Sapolsky admits is arrogant. But entertaining nonetheless). I do really like the idea he is proposing (there is no free will. We are all a result of our circumstances). But either he drops the ball after exhausting himself through the earlier chapters trying to DISprove that there IS free will (as any decent scientist would), or it shows that there simply isn't enough scientists out there trying to PROVE there is no free will; not enough evidence for him to draw from. At best this is a book about disproving any tangible evidence of free will. Putting us right where (in my opinion) we should be: at a place where we must humbly admit, "we just don't know for sure."
If you want to expand your brain on chaos theory, Emergence and Quantum Indeterminacy, read this whole thing. If you want to get to the point Sapolsky is trying to make, read the last couple of chapters and call it what it is: an interesting concept to chew on that challenges (y)our judgemental views of "good" and "bad."

Very fascinating subject

Did no one realize saying ‘please see the accompanying pdf’ a thousand times would get very old very quickly?!

It is turtles all the way down!

The phrase, "See the acompaning pdf for a footnote" will be repeated often. The footnotes are still good and fun. Either buy a physical copy or the kindle version to "read along." Using the pdf alone may be cumbersome and you may lose context when looking through it (the kindle version does a good job of allowing you to go back and forth). It is read well and entertaining to listen to, even with this issue. I feel it is a Five Star audio book and standard book on its own. Worth the money (and credit) I've payed for it.

Please See The Accompanying PDF for a Footnote

I really enjoyed this book and I'm starting to really understand the meaning of free will thanks to it. However, the constant reminder to "see the accompanying pdf for a footnote" is incredibly annoying because it breaks up the focus of the story and flow. Most people can follow along and don't need the reminders. if that can be removed, that would make listening to this much easier and it can make the information more easily available.

interesting ideas

Standard elite type book. Author is not a fan of the people or their preferred politicians. If you can get past all the pro elite and anti people sentiment, it's a good book.

Hard to Believe

I really liked Behave, and this book was not at bad, but I don’t really recommend it.
Most readers who strongly believe they have free-will, will likely base that upon something like a soul.
Thus the author’s arguments will likely fall flat. The PDF is difficult to absorb except while actually listening to the book, which is awkward.

It is literally Hard to Believe that free will does not exist.
Although the author seems to believe his own arguments at some level, and tries to live those beliefs, and testifies in court regarding those beliefs…it is not at all clear he really believes, at a deep level, that he has no free will. I also agree with the author’s conclusion, nevertheless I find it Hard to Believe I have no free will. His previous book, Behave, set out the practical aspects of limited free will very well, and there is little in this book to extend those practical recommendations.

The author does a pretty good job describing the physics that makes Free Will extremely unlikely.
Each interaction is, almost entirely, dependent upon prior interactions.
There is almost no place non-deterministic free-will could come from.
Almost. One hole in the author’s reasoning is regarding that “almost”.
He believes any quantum indeterminacy is too small to influence free will.
The indeterminacy of each interaction is indeed very tiny but if free-will somehow influenced many billions of non-deterministic interactions, there seems to be plenty of room for free-will.
I don’t actually believe quantum indeterminism creates free will, but I don’t think the author demonstrated convincingly it is not possible.

The narration was quite clear and otherwise excellent.

What???

What is this book actually about?

Chapters 8-10 seemed like someone narrating from an encyclopedia!

challenging

Strikes a balance between being to a lay audience (myself included) and a scholarly one. It challenged my perspective on the world, and I already started with the belief that there is no free will.

Required reading for life.

Pure science and wholehearted humanity spilled out in a way that’s not only easy to grok, it’s impossible not to. Do yourself and your circle a favor and read/listen to this one.